The use of air jets to dry hands is well known. Examples of hand dryers which emit at least one air jet through a slot-like opening are shown in GB 2249026A, JP 2002-034835A and JP 2002306370A. However, in practice it is very difficult to achieve an evenly distributed airflow of sufficiently high momentum to dry the user's hands efficiently in an acceptably short length of time. Furthermore, the amount of noise emitted by a motor suitable for generating an airflow of sufficiently high momentum adequately to dry the user's hands can be unacceptably high.
One way of reducing the amount of motor noise emitted by the drying apparatus is disclosed in our copending application no GB 0515754.0. In this arrangement, vanes are positioned in the ducts which carry the airflow from the motor to the slot-like openings. A further prior art arrangement is shown in JP 2003-180554, in which various box-like silencing members are positioned inside the casing of the hand dryer.